


Fork in the Road

by BannerApples



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Diabound is literally a snake, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Just a hopefully fluffy little thing, Ryou is his soon-to-be-hapless owner, This is very short, and yet it took me two hours to write, shenanigans will ensue at some point, there is a very large chance I'm going to expand on this, this suddenly demanded to be drabbled
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6002605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BannerApples/pseuds/BannerApples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of that Monster World game where Yugi formally met his Darkness and Ryou’s own Darkness was banished to the depths of the Shadow Realm, the Ring-bearer is on his way home from school when a split second decision changes the future, for better or worse. (Anime-inspired, canon-divergence inbound)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fork in the Road

**Author's Note:**

> Lot of creative liberties gonna be taken if I ever throw this out into the world. Instead of precious sleep time I decided that my time was apparently better spent writing up the beginning of what I'll prolly end up calling the Snek!Au. I fully blame the tumblr memes for any words butchered or misused over the course of this adventure. The type of snake is a very docile one when raised properly, and requires very little maintenance. The cost of said snake equals roughly $80 CAN (according to google), and that price is a little high for a general pet store range. My excuse is import costs/licenses, and the fact its an Albino colouring instead.
> 
> Let me know if this is any good, yeah?

Instead of continuing on his well-trodden path towards the apartments where he lived, Ryou ducked into a small pet store to look at the decorations that were sometimes cheaper (and better made) for his RPG world sets. It doesn't take long for him to wander by the usual displays of fake plants and aquarium structures. Heading towards the reptile tanks, an unusual gut feeling draws him to a tank that an employee had just finished settling in. Inside, carving a small path through the sand lining the bottom towards the rock-like foam ‘cave’ that will provide a place to hide and rest, is a pure white snake no longer than Ryou’s forearm.

Ryou’s feet slowed to a stop. Before him, one of the few employees of the store was getting to their own. In their hands rested a just-capped marker that they had used to write the information on the front of the tank. Scrawled across the corner in neat writing were the words ‘NEW! Albino Kenyan Sand Boa, Male, ¥6542’. The employee gave Ryou a pleasant smile and stepped back so he could get closer.

The not-really Albino peered into the tank. The snake was beautiful, and something deep within that he was wary of naming resonated with the animal. Like it was an old friend he hadn’t seen in a while. A hand reached up to unconsciously tug gently at the loose stands of white framing his face. To be fair, he had more than enough money saved away to afford the snake and anything it might need - including a proper tank for when it grew, a feeding enclosure, and even heating and bedding requirements. It wasn’t the first time Ryou had to talk himself out of buying a snake in the past year. Decidedly odd, yes, but then again he had been having some pretty odd moments the other half of the time anyways.

His decision was made for him when the snake burrowed back out and looked up at the humans outside its temporary home. It was the first time that Ryou ignored his own advice, at least when it came to pets. His landlord at the apartment allowed animals, so long as they were properly trained and handled. She had even hinted more than once that Ryou get a pet to keep him company. Somehow he knew that a snake wasn’t quite what she had in mind.

Roughly an hour later, including a side trip to a bookstore, home, and then back to the pet store for a second time, Ryou finally entered his home for the last time that day. Everything but the reptile had been carefully stacked by the 15 gallon aquarium in his spare room. Resolutely ignoring the large diorama, still set up for that game of Monster World, Ryou dropped everything not of importance and then returned to his front room.

Carefully undoing the travel container containing his new pet, Ryou reached in slowly and picked up the tiny snake around the middle. Some distant part of his mind pointed out that he had never been around a live snake before. Some other part told it to kindly shut up and stop complaining. The snake in his hands didn’t clue into the fact that his new owner was having a mild argument about his sudden snake-handling abilities with himself and lifted its red-brown eyes to look at the person holding him.

Everything in Ryou’s mind ground to a halt. His own brown eyes widened. There was an intelligence in the snake’s eyes that hadn’t been there when at the pet store. Unbidden, the words spilled from his mouth before he could properly process them.

“Welcome home, Diabound.”


End file.
